A severe shortage of medicinal plants and herbs threatens

There is no land to cultivate medicinal plants, neither are there any legal provisions, nor market access. At present, the risks involved are too high for small scale farmers to opt for cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs

The government s vanaspati van scheme is good news, but for it to succeed small scale farmers and local communities have to be brought in its fold

At a time when traditional Indian systems of medicine are critically affected by the non availability of herbs, the country is losing its medicinal wealth to well organised smuggling networks. Government policies with a blind eye for domestic trade have m

Groups of tribal women in Orissa are fighting against authorities to improve their lot by consolidating the trade of minor forest produce

Although the Chipko movement is practically non-existent in its region of origin it remains one of the most frequently deployed examples of an environmental and/or a women's movement in the South. A small but growing number of commentators are now critiquing much neopopulist theorising on Chipko, and this paper provides an overview of these critiques. It then takes the debate further with reference to a more recent regional movement in the hills.